On January 18, in celebration of the coming Chinese Spring Festival, the Chinese New Year Concert “Charming Silk Road·Long Shang Xing”,was held at the National Music Schoolin Opole. The concert was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of China and the Chinese Embassy in Poland and undertaken by the Department of Culture and Tourism of Gansu Province and BJUT-Opole Confucius Institute.

His ExcellencyLiu Guangyuan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of Chinato the Republic of Poland,Mr.Tomasz Kostuś,Member of the House of Representatives of Poland and Deputy Chief of the China Group,Mr.Arkadiusz Wiśniewski, Mayor of Opole,Ms.Zhang Zhonghua, Cultural Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Poland, and Mr.Yang Jianren, Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Gansu Province, attended theconcert.

Ambassador Liu Guangyuan delivering a speech

Liu Guangyuan delivered a speech before the performance. He praised theOpole Confucius Institute for its role in promoting local cultural and economic exchange as well as the development of the friendly relations between China and Poland. Then he presented the award to Professor Jerzy Skubis, the winner of the first “Crystal Bridge Award”, recognizing his contribution to Sino-Poland friendship. Jerzy Skubis was the former President of Opole University of Technology and the founder of the Opole Confucius Institute.In addition,Mr. Arkadiusz Wiśniewski, Mayor of Opole, and Ms.Barbara Kaminska, Vice-chairman of theOpole City Council,presented Mr. Sun Yingnan,Extra-affairs Commissioner of the Opole Confucius Institute with the prize of Opole honorary citizen and spoke highly of the contributions made by the institutein optimizing economic development of Opole region.

With the joint efforts of institute directors and staff of the Chinese and Polish sides, the performance was a great success,highly acclaimed by both local people and the respective governments. During the activity, Gong Wenjing, Liaison Staff of BJUT at the Central and Eastern Europe Liaison Office and Chinese Director of the Opole Confucius Institute, introduced to Liu Guangyuan and Polish parliamentary officers about the efforts made by BJUT in building and developing the Opole Confucius Instituteas well as various activities carried out by the Sino-Polish University Consortium since its founding and its future plans.Liu Guangyuan affirmed the positive influence of BJUT in facilitating the development of higher education of both countries. He placed great expectations on the future of the consortium and hoped that BJUT would play a bigger role in improving the exchanges between the two countries in culture and higher education.